Workout Description

Why This Workout Is Hard

Ring dips are a high-skill bodyweight movement requiring significant upper body strength and stability. The max rep format creates continuous fatigue accumulation without built-in rest, forcing athletes to work through progressive failure. Most average CrossFitters will hit muscular failure quickly and struggle to accumulate meaningful volume, making this significantly more challenging than standard push-ups or other basic upper body movements.

Training Focus

This workout develops the following fitness attributes:

• Stamina (8/10): High muscular endurance demand on triceps, chest, and shoulders as athletes push for maximum repetitions until failure.
• Strength (7/10): Ring dips require significant upper body pressing strength, especially as stabilization demands increase with fatigue.
• Flexibility (4/10): Requires good shoulder mobility and range of motion for proper ring dip depth and lockout position.
• Endurance (3/10): Limited cardiovascular demand as ring dips are primarily upper body strength with rest periods between max effort sets.
• Power (2/10): Minimal explosive component; focus is on grinding out maximum reps rather than speed or explosiveness.
• Speed (1/10): No time component or cycling speed required; athletes work at their own pace for maximum repetitions.

Movements

• Ring Dip

Benchmark Notes

This is a max effort ring dip test, similar to other max rep gymnastics benchmarks. Ring dips are significantly more challenging than regular push-ups or dips due to the instability of the rings, requiring greater shoulder stability and core control. For reference, Elizabeth (21-15-9 squat clean + ring dip) provides some context - elite athletes complete 45 ring dips in that workout in 160-240 seconds while fatigued from heavy cleans. In a fresh, max effort scenario, athletes can sustain much higher rep counts. Ring dip capacity breakdown: Elite athletes (L9-L10) can typically perform 120-170+ ring dips when fresh, often breaking into sets of 15-25 early, then 10-15, then 5-10, with minimal rest between sets. Advanced athletes (L6-L8) manage 65-120 reps, usually breaking earlier into sets of 10-15, then 5-8. Intermediate athletes (L4-L5) achieve 35-65 reps with frequent set breaks of 3-8 reps. Beginners (L1-L3) typically manage 15-35 reps, often doing singles or doubles toward the end. The key limiting factors are shoulder endurance, tricep strength, and ring stability. Unlike pull-ups where grip often fails first, ring dips are limited by pressing strength and shoulder stability. Recovery between sets is typically 5-15 seconds for elite athletes, 10-30 seconds for intermediate, and 15-45 seconds for beginners. Final targets: L10: 170+ reps, L5: 65 reps, L1: 15 reps.

Modality Profile

Ring Dip is a bodyweight gymnastics movement performed on rings, requiring no external load or cyclical cardio component.